The present invention relates to a filter medium arrangement and method of making the same and more particularly to a unique and novel pleated filter medium and method of making the same which utilizes minor daubs of adhesive spacer materials specifically located along pleat crests to spread and maintain opposed faces of the pleats in spaced, free-flowing, uninterrupted pleat valleys.
Various filter medium spacing arrangements are known in the filter art, such as the spacer rib arrangement disclosed as prior art in applicant's co-filed and co-pending related application Ser. No. 09/277,795, filed on Mar. 27, 1999. In this related application by applicant, several pleat spacer patents were noted and described but none, either alone or in combination, teaches or suggests the novel arrangement of the referred to related application; nor, do any teach or suggest--either alone or in combination--the unique and novel apparatus and method described herein. The aforementioned patent reference noted and briefly described in the related copending patent application include: U.S. Pat. No. 4,268,290, issued to R. B. Barrington on May 19, 1981; U.S. Pat. No. 5,028,331, issued to H. J. Lippold on Jul. 2, 1991; U.S. No. 5,064,598, issued to H. Seiler on Nov. 12, 1991; U.S. Pat. No. 5,066,400, issued to G. J. Rocklitz on Nov. 19, 1991; U.S. Pat. No. 4,177,050, issued to R. M. Culbert et. al. on Dec. 4, 1979; U.S. Pat. No. 4,537,812, issued to R. W. Elbers on Aug. 27, 1985; and, U.S. Pat. No. 5,744,036, issued to K. J. Choi on Apr. 28, 1998. As noted in the copending application, for the most part, the structures disclosed in these patents have been comparatively complex and expensive in manufacture and assembly, requiring numerous parts and assembly steps and presenting comparatively high fluid resistance to the treated fluid stream. Such is the case in the present application.
The present invention, like the related copending application and even more so, provides a pleated filter medium arrangement which also is economical and straight forward in manufacture and assembly, requiring even more so, an improved minimum of parts and method steps and, at the same time, also providing a pleated filter medium which is comparatively stable and readily producible in various shapes and configurations, even further optimizing the amount of filter medium face to a fluid stream to be treated and further reducing the quantities of material required to accomplish the same, the present invention providing an even lower amount of resistance which is presented to the fluid stream to be treated.
Various other features of the present invention as described herein will become obvious to one skilled in the art upon reading the disclosure herein.